Tom Akstens and Neil Rossi

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Bio

Like it or not, this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. . . . And THANK YOU for being part of the Tom and Neil 50th Anniversary tour.

It REALLY doesn’t seem possible that out first professional gig was 50 years ago, thankfully since a recent reviewer remarked that our show was “energetic and fun.” But we really do remember walking out on stage in a college gym to open the show for...
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Like it or not, this is a once-in-a-lifetime deal. . . . And THANK YOU for being part of the Tom and Neil 50th Anniversary tour.

It REALLY doesn’t seem possible that out first professional gig was 50 years ago, thankfully since a recent reviewer remarked that our show was “energetic and fun.” But we really do remember walking out on stage in a college gym to open the show for something called “Hootenanny ’63.” Three thousand people had showed up that night to see the headliners of the show: Tom Rush, The Jug Band and Bonnie Dobson. The promoter thought it would be catchy to open the show with some high school kids playing bluegrass—and somehow we got the job. We’d never played in public, and we were petrified. But we zipped through three fast numbers and the crowd loved our energy, if nothing else. We each made $12.50.

Since then, we’ve been all over the map, as a duo, and doing our various solo and other group projects. Neil was the fiddler in The Spark Gap Wonder Boys, the first Northern group to win the World Champion Old Time String Band title at the Union Grove Fiddler’s Convention. They recorded a classic album for Rounder Records. He went on to play for many years with David Bromberg, to do session work, and to play with a number of groups in New York and Vermont. Most recently, he’s been the mainstay of Big Spike, who has recorded several albums and has been very popular on the festival circuit. Tom had a stint with Blues Power, recorded for Takoma Records, performed across the U. S. and Canada, and released several solo albums, including releases in Japan and Korea. He was also a member of Big Trout Radio, with Artie Traum and Christopher Shaw. Together, we’ve performed hundreds of concerts and coffeehouses, and released two albums: All Around the Mountain (live) and Scoundrels, Trains and Tragic Romance (studio).

For all these years, our goal has been pretty simple: to share our joy in American roots music and the incredible lore that makes it such a rich part of our heritage. And to have a great time doing it! So far, so good. . . .